UFOhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/ufo
en-usFri, 18 Aug 2017 02:22:29 -0400Fri, 18 Aug 2017 02:22:29 -0400The latest news on UFO from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-ufo-concept-art-photos-2017-3Nintendo's amazing new 'Zelda' game almost had UFOs and alienshttp://www.businessinsider.com/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-ufo-concept-art-photos-2017-3
Tue, 14 Mar 2017 11:29:58 -0400Ben Gilbert
<p>The new "Legend of Zelda" game, "Breath of the Wild," features an especially lively version of Hyrule. It's also an especially <em>strange</em> version of Hyrule.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58c805516ad50a58018b4823-1280" alt="The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" data-mce-source="Nintendo"></p>
<p>There's stuff like what you see above <em>all over the place</em>. Which isn't to say that there are massive, flying, snake-like dragons everywhere, but that there's mystery around every corner.</p>
<p>The first time you experience a lightning storm in Hyrule, for instance, is especially memorable. Better unequip all the metal you're carrying as soon as possible, lest you get blasted to pieces by a massive bolt of lightning from the sky!</p>
<p>And, apparently, the world of Hyrule was going to be <em>even stranger</em>:</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58c7fd856ff8016b008b48bc-1271/screen shot 2017-03-14 at 100320 am.png" alt="The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" data-mce-source="Nintendo"></p>
<p>This concept art image is one of many of the ideas for "Breath of the Wild" that didn't make it into the final game. The image is one of several featured in a three-part video series digging into the creation of "Breath of the Wild."</p>
<p>"Some of our younger designers came up with very unique suggestions," art director Satoru Takizawa says in the video. "Like the idea that UFOs could invade from space and abduct cattle." What!</p>
<p>The Zelda series has never before featured aliens, or UFOs, and the interesting blend of fantasy world with that of sci-fi would've certainly been an entirely new spin on the long-running franchise. There&nbsp;<em>is</em> a storyline in "Majora's Mask" <a href="http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Them">that fans interpret as an alien invasion</a>, but it's never explicitly stated.</p>
<p>The concept is part of the greater "break the conventions" theme that the game's developers adopted while creating "Breath of the Wild."</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58c04ee5402a6b83038b4c90-1280" alt="The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" data-mce-source="Nintendo"></p>
<p>And it <em>really</em> comes across in the game: I've been playing Zelda games my whole life, since the first one on the NES, and "Breath of the Wild" is the first game in the franchise to truly break with conventions. It's a completely open-ended adventure that encourages discovery, exploration, and courage. More than just a great Zelda game, it's a medium-moving game that is sure to influence years of games to come.</p>
<p>And it almost had UFOs and cattle abduction! There's always next time, Nintendo.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-dunkey-physics-video-2017-3" >One perfect video sums up all the amazing things you can do in the new 'Zelda' game</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-ufo-concept-art-photos-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lets-play-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-nintendo-switch-game-2017-3">Nintendo’s ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ is amazing — here’s what it’s like</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/this-extraterrestrial-houseboat-gets-stellar-update-ufo-jet-capsule-2016-12This floating UFO home lets you live underwaterhttp://www.businessinsider.com/this-extraterrestrial-houseboat-gets-stellar-update-ufo-jet-capsule-2016-12
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 13:13:34 -0500Rob Ludacer
<p><a href="http://www.techinsider.io/why-ufo-sightings-peak-in-the-summer-2016-2">UFO sightings could become a lot more frequent</a><span>. Boating startup, </span><a href="http://www.jetcapsule.com/" target="_blank">Jet Capsule</a><span>, has released this updated look at their <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-ocean-home-futuristic-houseboat-2016-5">Unidentified Floating Homes</a>, futuristic houseboats that look like UFOs. The new version comes with larger rooms, a new top deck, and faster engines.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Follow Tech Insider:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/techinsider">On Facebook</a></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-extraterrestrial-houseboat-gets-stellar-update-ufo-jet-capsule-2016-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-campaign-john-podesta-ufos-aliens-2016-10Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta is obsessed with UFOs and alienshttp://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-campaign-john-podesta-ufos-aliens-2016-10
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 12:00:00 -0400Graham Flanagan
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<p>For years, Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta has been on an outspoken crusade to declassify government documents about UFOs and the potential for extraterrestrial life. <em><br><br></em><strong>Follow BI Video: </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Video" target="_blank">On Twitter</a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-campaign-john-podesta-ufos-aliens-2016-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/rendlesham-forest-britains-most-notorious-ufo-case-us-military-base-nick-pope-ministry-defence-2016-9Britain’s most notorious UFO case happened at a US airbase and it’s still a complete mysteryhttp://www.businessinsider.com/rendlesham-forest-britains-most-notorious-ufo-case-us-military-base-nick-pope-ministry-defence-2016-9
Thu, 22 Sep 2016 04:46:00 -0400Claudia Romeo and Joe Daunt
<p><span style="color: #000000;">On</span><span style="color: #000000;">&nbsp;</span><span class="aBn" style="color: #000000;" data-term="goog_496451025"><span class="aQJ">26 December 1980</span></span><span style="color: #000000;">, two men claimed they saw a glowing object with coloured lights at Rendlesham Forest, just feet away from RAF Woodbridge - where&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #000000;">the US&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #000000;">Air Force was stationed.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The Ministry of Defence never investigated the events as a security matter, but there's enough physical evidence to label it an unexplained UFO sighting, according to <a href="http://www.nickpope.net/">Nick Pope</a>, who used to work for the MoD.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The case remains a mystery&nbsp;more than 35 years on.</span></p>
<p><em>Produced by <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/author/claudia-romeo">Claudia Romeo</a>. Illustrations by <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/author/samantha-lee">Samantha Lee</a>. Voiced by <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/author/joe-daunt">Joe Daunt</a>. Special Thanks to <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/author/graham-flanagan">Graham Flanagan</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><span style="color: #000000;">&nbsp;</span></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rendlesham-forest-britains-most-notorious-ufo-case-us-military-base-nick-pope-ministry-defence-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-scientists-think-aliens-look-like-2016-9What scientists think aliens could actually look likehttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-scientists-think-aliens-look-like-2016-9
Wed, 14 Sep 2016 12:08:04 -0400Eames Yates and Jessica Orwig
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<p>We've all wondered whether aliens actually exist – and if they do what exactly do they look like? We compiled information from some of the world's leading scientists to give you a glimpse into what they think intelligent life could actually look like and the answer could surprise you. </p>
<p><em>Produced by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/eames-yates">Eames Yates</a>. Original Reporting by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/jessica-orwig">Jessica Orwig</a>. </em></p>
<p><strong>Follow BI Video: </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Video" target="_blank">On Twitter</a> </p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-scientists-think-aliens-look-like-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/john-podesta-ufo-obsession-hillary-clinton-2016-7Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair is obsessed with UFOs and alienshttp://www.businessinsider.com/john-podesta-ufo-obsession-hillary-clinton-2016-7
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 12:07:00 -0400Graham Flanagan
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<p>For years, Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta has been on an outspoken crusade to declassify government documents about UFOs and the potential for extraterrestrial life. <em><br><br></em><strong>Follow BI Video: </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Video" target="_blank">On Twitter</a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-podesta-ufo-obsession-hillary-clinton-2016-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-sightings-from-the-cia-archive-2016-69 of the most surreal UFO documents from the CIA archivehttp://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-sightings-from-the-cia-archive-2016-6
Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:53:00 -0400Chris Weller
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56aa885add089569778b477d-1014-507/3292027876_7d2c3bc70b_o.jpg" alt="flying saucers" data-mce-source="aka Tman/Flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rundwolf/3292027876/in/photolist-61Uvcj-6ysvTn-7ToKN5-7Q4NfR-7PYrYT-no5GXo-edwwtA-oXD1zA-aUm1AZ-3pbih-aUkMNR-bfskTM-aUmwwP-aUkSda-aUmvSM-nFBRAS-2i5ez-aiiMWr-7Yhj5o-dkBP2q-AM8BJd-7DtjCV-4miWkp-7mNtmC-CqwDwL-DkHU6s-Do2TxV-DfKVdP-DfL9ei-CqDsDD-DdsBAb-Cqwa8S-8TRwy5-dkBM72-aUkRyK-8712kv-8WE7Vm-qHL1Vy-dkBGWW-7fzknH-dkBDiB-dkBD3M-dkBPcL-9uHWjP-8jTZk6-CVVuvA-CPx8mF-CqDPjB-DkHvfC-CPxqZg" /></p><p>Summer is officially here, which means <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/why-ufo-sightings-peak-in-the-summer-2016-2">UFO sightings are bound to spike until late September</a>, as they have for roughly the last 65 years.</p>
<p>In honor of the summer ritual, Tech Insider dug through <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/collection/ufos-fact-or-fiction">the mountain of CIA documents</a> related to UFO sightings, which the agency declassified nearly 40 years ago.&nbsp;Many of the sighting reports&nbsp;date&nbsp;back to the early 1950s, at a time when political tensions were high and flying objects were seen as national security threats.</p>
<p>Here are some of the most interesting.</p><h3>A memo on national security and the 'vulnerability to air attack' from flying saucers</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56aa885add089569778b477f-400-300/a-memo-on-national-security-and-the-vulnerability-to-air-attack-from-flying-saucers.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>On October 2, 1952, the Assistant Director in the Office of Scientific Intelligence <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015339.pdf">sent a memo</a> to the Director of the entire CIA&nbsp;with the subject "Flying Saucers."</p>
<p>As the AD wrote, "'Flying saucers' pose two elements of danger which have national security implications. The first involves mass psychological considerations and the second concerns the vulnerability of the United States to air attack."</p>
<p>The AD recommended more research be conducted to explore the "implications of the 'flying saucer' problem."</p>
<p>(If you listen closely enough, you can almost hear them typing the word "drones" decades ahead of time.)</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Uzbekistan's mysterious light show</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56aa885add089569778b4780-400-300/uzbekistans-mysterious-light-show.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>The late 1940s in the Uzbekistan capital city of Tashkent saw more unidentified light shows than it could count.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"From May to September 1947," <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015282.pdf">a CIA information report reads</a>, "three light phenomena happening at intervals of about 15 minutes were seen almost every night between 9 and 10 p.m. local time." At its highest point, the light seemed to be roughly a fifth the diameter of a full moon.</p>
<p>As the report details, the light always began as a bright red ball. Within seconds it would grow a fiery tail and then morph into a green, then white, mass.</p>
<p>"Smoke trails, noises, or detonations were not noticed."</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Fiery disks looming over Belgian uranium mines</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56aa885add089569778b4781-400-300/fiery-disks-looming-over-belgian-uranium-mines.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>A daily newspaper in Vienna, of all publications, <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015463.pdf">reported on a peculiar sighting</a> of "two fiery disks" hovering over uranium mines in mid-August, 1952.</p>
<p>As the report explains, the two objects supposedly tore through the airspace in a highly erratic fashion. At one point they would be soaring vertically away from the onlookers, and the next they'd be diving&nbsp;down "to within 20 meters of the tree tops."</p>
<p>Commander Pierre of the local airfield took off in his own fighter plane to wrangle the unknown aircraft. However, "Pierre had to give up pursuit after 15 minutes since both disks, with a loud whistling sound which he heard despite the noise of his own plane, disappeared in a straight line toward Lake Tanganyika."</p>
<p>Pierre later estimated the disks were traveling more than 900 miles per hour.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-sightings-from-the-cia-archive-2016-6#/#the-east-german-flying-saucers-of-1952-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-ocean-home-futuristic-houseboat-2016-5These UFO-like homes floating on the ocean's surface are designed to be unsinkablehttp://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-ocean-home-futuristic-houseboat-2016-5
Mon, 16 May 2016 12:32:18 -0400Rob Ludacer
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<p><a href="http://www.techinsider.io/why-ufo-sightings-peak-in-the-summer-2016-2"><br>UFO sightings could become a lot more frequent</a>. A boating startup, <a href="http://www.jetcapsule.com/" target="_blank">Jet Capsule</a>, has begun working on a prototype for Unidentified Floating Homes, futuristic houseboats that look like UFOs.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><em>Produced by </em><a href="http://www.techinsider.io/author/rob-ludacer"><span class="s2"><em>Rob Ludacer</em></span></a></span></p>
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Mon, 25 Apr 2016 13:52:00 -0400Graham Flanagan
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<p>For years, Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta has been on an outspoken crusade to declassify government documents about UFOs and the potential for extraterrestrial life. <br><br><em>Produced by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/graham-flanagan" target="_blank">Graham Flanagan</a><br><br></em><strong>Follow BI Video: </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Video" target="_blank">On Twitter</a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-podesta-ufo-alien-hillary-clinton-area-51-2016-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-scientists-think-aliens-could-look-like-2016-4Here’s what scientists think aliens could actually look likehttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-scientists-think-aliens-could-look-like-2016-4
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 10:49:00 -0400Eames Yates and Jessica Orwig
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<p>We've all wondered whether aliens actually exist – and if they do what exactly do they look like? We compiled information from some of the world's leading scientists to give you a glimpse into what they think intelligent life could actually look like and the answer could surprise you. </p>
<p><em>Produced by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/eames-yates">Eames Yates</a>. Original Reporting by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/jessica-orwig">Jessica Orwig</a>. </em></p>
<p><strong>Follow BI Video: </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Video" target="_blank">On Twitter</a> </p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-scientists-think-aliens-could-look-like-2016-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ufo-sightings-peak-in-the-summer-2016-2Why UFO sightings spike like crazy in the summerhttp://www.businessinsider.com/why-ufo-sightings-peak-in-the-summer-2016-2
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 09:00:00 -0500
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/56c1d9e1dd0895a8758b469f-2048-1024/14264936813_49768ba886_k.jpg" alt="UFO sightings" data-mce-source="Doc Searls/Flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/14264936813/in/photolist-nJxwJr-7uPMqE-q89PHX-8YY3fe-93AhP-7AYzST-eNJrra-56GRb6-56M2v7-5NH86Y-56LWWJ-nGJzgb-ekqG3b-pmJxqA-da5cRg-6u4WSd-BPTDP-6bUxzB-56GMop-hiqhf-rtE9P9-7Dz3Gi-aiQzMe-nqgQDm-cAN6ZG-BPTCf-9huWHQ-8JriU9-8rSo79-7Do6Hz-7DyZ16-56GNMZ-8PtgZ8-pQZ1J9-9US84P-5YWN55-eD6Z9-715zwN-gnsgWW-8Jofj6-24qNK-7Dz45T-4LPTYM-8Lmdt5-28YVj6-7Dz4uz-Aka9F-4VQTXe-7Dz1Ap-7Dz2AH" /></p><p>Summertime is about relaxation, barbecues, and warm weather.&nbsp;</p>
<p>And, apparently, UFOs.</p>
<p>In a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.techinsider.io/surreal-ufo-documents-from-the-cia-archive-2016-1">series of memos</a>&nbsp;dated all the way to the late 1940s, top CIA officials detail their mounting concern over extraterrestrial life descending upon us. One strange trend quickly emerged to those officials, and one that has remained constant in the 67 years since. Today, as they did in 1949, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393228,00.asp">UFO sightings spike in the summer.</a>&nbsp;</p>
<p>There are several theories about why this happens.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56c1d9e1dd0895a8758b46a0-790-452/screen shot 2016-02-04 at 2.29.49 pm.png" alt="CIA ufo memo" data-mce-source="CIA" />Cassidy Nicholas is the chief archivist for the Mutual UFO Network, or <a href="http://www.mufon.com/">MUFON</a>, an organization started in 1969 that looks into reported UFO sightings. She is perhaps the foremost expert on UFO sightings data, having handled thousands of investigations within the last several years.</p>
<p>Nicholas passed the MUFON data along to Tech Insider, which include sightings since 1960.<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/56c1d9e1dd0895a8758b46a1-1200-1059/ti_graphics_ufo-spottings-1.png" alt="UFO spottings" data-mce-source="Skye Gould/Tech Insider" />The trend is hard to notice at first, mostly because there only a few dozen reports each month for most of the 20th century. But between May and August the numbers do tend to climb. &nbsp;</p>
<p>It's a trend that has gotten even easier to spot within the last decade, as more people have heard of MUFON and reported their UFO sightings.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56c1d9e1dd0895a8758b46a2-1200-1058/ti_graphics_ufo-spottings-2.png" alt="UFO spottings" data-mce-source="Skye Gould/Tech Insider" /></p>
<p>Nicholas' go-to explanation for this summer spike is pretty straightforward.</p>
<p>"[People] are noticing the weather, hiking, camping, doing outside activities," she tells Tech Insider. "And there seems to be an increase in live events" like concerts, fireworks, and other community gatherings.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In other words, people are simply outside more in the summer, rather than hunched over their phones.</p>
<p>Other possible reasons include blockbuster movies and UFO-related TV shows released during the summer months. This could prime people to label a radio tower or a remote-controlled drone a UFO.</p>
<p>"It's likely that the media and [alien-themed] movies that are coming out, like&nbsp;<em>Apollo 18</em> and <em>Paul</em>, are piquing people's interest in UFOs," Clifford Clift, the international director of MUFON, <a href="http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/ufo-sightings-reports-spike-august-summer-2025/">told "Life's Little Mysteries"</a> in 2011.</p>
<p>Given how long the trend has persisted, however, it's more likely that being outside is the primary reason for reporting.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A third explanation, of course, is that there are indeed more flying saucers in the sky between June and September, although MUFON has yet to confirm that is the case.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ufo-sightings-peak-in-the-summer-2016-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/annoying-resume-mistakes-buzzwords-grammar-typos-experience-careers-strategy-jobs-interview-application-employer-2017-7">A former HR exec who reviewed over 40,000 résumés says these 7 résumé mistakes annoy her</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/surreal-ufo-documents-from-the-cia-archive-2016-17 of the most surreal UFO documents from the CIA archivehttp://www.businessinsider.com/surreal-ufo-documents-from-the-cia-archive-2016-1
Thu, 28 Jan 2016 16:30:00 -0500Chris Weller
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56aa885add089569778b477d-1014-507/3292027876_7d2c3bc70b_o.jpg" alt="flying saucers" data-mce-source="aka Tman/Flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rundwolf/3292027876/in/photolist-61Uvcj-6ysvTn-7ToKN5-7Q4NfR-7PYrYT-no5GXo-edwwtA-oXD1zA-aUm1AZ-3pbih-aUkMNR-bfskTM-aUmwwP-aUkSda-aUmvSM-nFBRAS-2i5ez-aiiMWr-7Yhj5o-dkBP2q-AM8BJd-7DtjCV-4miWkp-7mNtmC-CqwDwL-DkHU6s-Do2TxV-DfKVdP-DfL9ei-CqDsDD-DdsBAb-Cqwa8S-8TRwy5-dkBM72-aUkRyK-8712kv-8WE7Vm-qHL1Vy-dkBGWW-7fzknH-dkBDiB-dkBD3M-dkBPcL-9uHWjP-8jTZk6-CVVuvA-CPx8mF-CqDPjB-DkHvfC-CPxqZg" /></p><p>Nearly 40 years ago, <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/collection/ufos-fact-or-fiction">the CIA declassified a mountain of documents</a> related to UFO sightings.</p>
<p>Now that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/x-files-built-a-life-sized-spaceship-for-the-premiere-but-that-wasnt-even-the-revivals-most-expensive-episode-creator-says-2016-1">"The X-Files" has been revived</a> as a miniseries, the CIA decided to&nbsp;resurface those&nbsp;files.&nbsp;Many of them trace back to the early 1950s, at a time when political tensions were still frozen over and flying objects were seen as national security threats.</p>
<p>Here are some of the most interesting.</p><h3>A memo on national security and the 'vulnerability to air attack' from flying saucers</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56aa885add089569778b477f-400-300/a-memo-on-national-security-and-the-vulnerability-to-air-attack-from-flying-saucers.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>On October 2, 1952, the Assistant Director in the Office of Scientific Intelligence <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015339.pdf">sent a memo</a> to the Director of the entire CIA&nbsp;with the subject "Flying Saucers."</p>
<p>As the AD wrote, "'Flying saucers' pose two elements of danger which have national security implications. The first involves mass psychological considerations and the second concerns the vulnerability of the United States to air attack."</p>
<p>The AD recommended more research be conducted to explore the "implications of the 'flying saucer' problem."</p>
<p>(If you listen closely enough, you can almost hear them typing the word "drones" decades ahead of time.)</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Uzbekistan's mysterious light show</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56aa885add089569778b4780-400-300/uzbekistans-mysterious-light-show.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>The late 1940s in the Uzbekistan capital city of Tashkent saw more unidentified light shows than it could count.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"From May to September 1947," <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015282.pdf">a CIA information report reads</a>, "three light phenomena happening at intervals of about 15 minutes were seen almost every night between 9 and 10 p.m. local time." At its highest point, the light seemed to be roughly a fifth the diameter of a full moon.</p>
<p>As the report details, the light always began as a bright red ball. Within seconds it would grow a fiery tail and then morph into a green, then white, mass.</p>
<p>"Smoke trails, noises, or detonations were not noticed."</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Fiery disks looming over Belgian uranium mines</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56aa885add089569778b4781-400-300/fiery-disks-looming-over-belgian-uranium-mines.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>A daily newspaper in Vienna, of all publications, <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000015463.pdf">reported on a peculiar sighting</a> of "two fiery disks" hovering over uranium mines in mid-August, 1952.</p>
<p>As the report explains, the two objects supposedly tore through the airspace in a highly erratic fashion. At one point they would be soaring vertically away from the onlookers, and the next they'd be diving&nbsp;down "to within 20 meters of the tree tops."</p>
<p>Commander Pierre of the local airfield took off in his own fighter plane to wrangle the unknown aircraft. However, "Pierre had to give up pursuit after 15 minutes since both disks, with a loud whistling sound which he heard despite the noise of his own plane, disappeared in a straight line toward Lake Tanganyika."</p>
<p>Pierre later estimated the disks were traveling more than 900 miles per hour.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/surreal-ufo-documents-from-the-cia-archive-2016-1#/#the-east-german-flying-saucers-of-1952-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-clouds-over-south-africa-2015-11'UFO' clouds have descended on South Africa, but there's a good explanationhttp://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-clouds-over-south-africa-2015-11
Tue, 10 Nov 2015 14:54:00 -0500Tanya Lewis
<p>The strangely shaped clouds that appeared over South Africa over the weekend would seem to make the alien movie "District 9" seem all too real.</p>
<p>Viewers took to Instagram to document the strange phenomenon. Take a look:</p>
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<p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://instagram.com/p/920IG1kLpB/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Did you notice the UFO's flying over #capetown yesterday? 👽 Photo by @mijlof 📷</a>
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<p style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#c9c8cd; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by Instagram South Africa (@instagram_sa) on Nov 8, 2015 at 11:56pm PST on
<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2015-11-09T07:56:32+00:00">Nov 8, 2015 at 11:56pm PST</time></p>
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<p>But there's a perfectly rational explanation for these "UFO" clouds.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151109-ufo-clouds-cape-town-lenticular-clouds-weather-science/">National Geographic reports</a>, they are known as lenticular clouds, and are typically formed when strong, moist winds move over jagged terrain or mountains, like South Africa's <a href="http://www.tablemountainnationalpark.org/">Table Mountain</a>. As the air passes over this terrain, it cools and condenses into ominous UFO-like shapes, aligned perpendicularly to the direction the air is flowing.</p>
<p>Though sometimes, they can form over flat terrain due to shear winds created by a weather front, <a href="http://earthsky.org/earth/best-photos-beautiful-lenticular-clouds-around-the-world%E2%80%8B">according to EarthSky</a>.</p>
<p>These clouds are different from other clouds because they don't move, according to <a href="http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/photos-lenticular-clouds-texas/47884790">AccuWeather Meteorologist Jesse Ferrell</a>.</p>
<p>For all these reasons, these clouds are often mistaken for UFOs.</p>
<p>Here are some more clouds. These ones were taken over Ireland in June:</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56422222bd86ef1d5d8bd983-1200-795/19282491936_8b2ef2a8b6_k.jpg" alt="19282491936_8b2ef2a8b6_k" data-mce-source="Heaton Johnson/Flickr Creative Commons" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/69327412@N04/19282491936/in/photolist-vnVP4w-6QTGun-9tHD3D-bwubGg-98sR3b-pECK5a-4wXr1a-dT5ogq-98pEJ4-6w6Yps-6w2MLF-Lrv2H-6w5yNW-8Yyz4L-4Zto6j-DSxxN-9tF8wJ-wUrhXw-jFujKL-8ZLiTK-8wRG45-6w1q5c-6A4Rxd-dUwsMo-6RsH8K-9Ep4Gm-4SGWgG-8rU63-6zZJhX-qYu3e-qFhXHx-4SNk9d-4MKQ3m-53z8ne-pQZ1NY-8RtkJG-8FnZLV-6w6UGq-rMXSHd-4MKQ3C-q89PGV-6EPHP9-6w6Wv9-6w6XHQ-q89PHX-pQZ1J9-q6edyA-dUwstQ-pbwSjs-pQXuoP"></p>
<p>These were spotted over Sierra Nevade in December 2011:</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/564222d79dd7cc1e008c8b6f-1200-900/6521593507_7901c9f424_o.jpg" alt="ufo clouds" data-mce-source="Juan Tello/Flickr Creative Commons" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/junctions/6521593507/in/photolist-aWhSxn-8RtkJG-ef72UC-fpDDts-e3G3qq-jm7stD-jm7sHr-jm7TY7-jm7ovi-jm7q4Z-jmag4G-jmak4f-jm7pia-jm5TuM-jmajUY-jm7TSL-jm5WWg-jm5VFv-apgP9X-jm7Twf-jm7oEM-prcFN8-jm5STX-jm7smV-jmagS5-jm7pEn-jm7pa4-jm7R7A-jm7SzL-g1SKfa-jm5W5B-9atKt5-jmafZ3-jmagYs-4hArVF-oD9cdF-4GvEcM-iTAhVB-5tUjWe-hSmT4w-7RJYai-4gobc5-apyx4B-y49jCk-e3HtLj-pVayP8-d7ediy-6gv5nZ-e3BMAt-3DMhfE"></p>
<p>And these ones were seen downwind of Mount Rainier, Washington, in September 2011:</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5642232b9dd7cc16008c8bf0-1200-899/6170575627_a3428c9d59_o.jpg" alt="ufo clouds" data-mce-source="David Brodbeck/Flickr Creative Commons" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cgull/6170575627/in/photolist-apgP9X-jm7Twf-jm7oEM-prcFN8-jm5STX-jm7smV-jmagS5-jm7pEn-jm7pa4-jm7R7A-jm7SzL-g1SKfa-jm5W5B-9atKt5-jmafZ3-jmagYs-4hArVF-oD9cdF-4GvEcM-iTAhVB-5tUjWe-hSmT4w-7RJYai-4gobc5-apyx4B-y49jCk-e3HtLj-pVayP8-d7ediy-6gv5nZ-e3BMAt-3DMhfE-9HMmSt-69kKZH-cZi4jo-d7eco7-e3HpQW-bMaJ3z-e3Hpno-F125c-cC4pJh-69pWVN-hSs2K6-e3HtxG-cZi4cN-e3Htfd-e3Hskw-e3HsAj-e3CBjB-7jLjje"></p><p><strong>NOW SEE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/incredible-shelf-cloud-brings-storm-to-australia-2015-11" >This terrifying 'tsunami cloud' just engulfed Sydney harbor</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>NEXT:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-nino-winter-forecast-2015-10" >El Niño is coming</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-clouds-over-south-africa-2015-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/life-storm-chaser-weather-tornado-colorado-new-mexico-2015-7">Experience what it’s like to be in the center of a powerful storm in this time-lapse video</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/bay-area-strange-light-san-francisco-aliens-ufo-navy-missile-2015-11California residents were puzzled by a strange bright light that appeared in the skyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/bay-area-strange-light-san-francisco-aliens-ufo-navy-missile-2015-11
Mon, 09 Nov 2015 15:23:00 -0500Lamar Salter
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<p>The internet freaked out over <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bright-light-in-the-sky-west-coast-2015-11" target="_blank">a strange light that appeared in the sky</a> over San Francisco.</p>
<p>Many people assumed it was a plane or a meteor shower, while more creative theorists determined it was something more extraterrestrial.</p>
<p><em>Produced by</em> <em><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/lamar-salter" target="_blank">Lamar Salter</a><br></em></p>
<p><strong>Follow BI Video:</strong> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsider.Video">On Facebook</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bay-area-strange-light-san-francisco-aliens-ufo-navy-missile-2015-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-was-actually-test-missile-over-west-coast-2015-11People all over the West Coast blew up social media when they 'saw a UFO' on Saturdayhttp://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-was-actually-test-missile-over-west-coast-2015-11
Mon, 09 Nov 2015 10:13:40 -0500Kim Renfro
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5640b83cdd08954b4a8b459f-1266-950/screen%20shot%202015-11-09%20at%208.32.33%20am.png" alt="Test Missile sighting" data-mce-source="YouTube"></p><p></p>
<p>If sci-fi movies and conspiracy theorists are to be heeded, an alien attack is basically imminent.</p>
<p>Those who believe in the inevitable visit from extra-terrestrials were given quite a shock on Saturday evening when they witnessed <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/bright-light-in-the-sky-west-coast-2015-11">a shockingly bright light streaking across the sky</a>, with a mysterious blue glow trailing behind it. </p>
<p>Even weirder was the far-reaching spread of these reports across the state of California and as far east as Arizona. </p>
<p><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
How was that just a missile when Northern Nevada and Arizona saw it?!? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFO?src=hash">#UFO</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ConspiracyTheory?src=hash">#ConspiracyTheory</a> 👽👽👽 </p>— Christina Tin (@NevadaTin) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/663247338924716032">November 8, 2015</a>
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<p>Business Insider <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/bright-light-in-the-sky-west-coast-2015-11">reported on the initial sighting</a> over the weekend, explaining how the "UFO" was actually a harmless test missile:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>Social media went nuts Saturday night because of reports of a bright light that appeared in the sky over the West Coast. The light appeared to be trailing an object before eventually burning out over the San Francisco Bay Area.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">A Navy spokesperson <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/nov/07/mystery-light-sky-military-navy-drill/">told</a> The San Diego Union-Tribune the lights were from a test conducted by submarine USS Kentucky deployed in the Pacific. At approximately 6 p.m., the USS Kentucky fired an unarmed <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/trident-ii-d5-fleet-ballistic-missile--fbm-.html" target="_blank">Lockheed Martin Trident II</a> missile.</p>
<p>However, virtually no one was aware of this, and people quickly took to Facebook and Twitter to confer with friends about what they had seen.</p>
<p>Here us one person's Facebook post from Santa Rosa, California (about 60 miles north of San Francisco):</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5640b83ddd08954b4a8b45a0-894-536/santa%20rosa%20ca%20ufo%20sighting.png" alt="Santa Rosa CA UFO sighting missile test" data-mce-source="Facebook"></p>
<p>The first reply confirmed the sighting, noting it was "hella weird."</p>
<p>In San Francisco, more reports of the sighting cropped up on Twitter.</p>
<p>Business Insider's Biz Carson saw it:</p>
<p><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
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Giant blue light from this plane/rocket/ship over San Francisco. Lit up the sky. <a href="https://t.co/SVBSUrlzjZ">pic.twitter.com/SVBSUrlzjZ</a> </p>— Biz Carson (@bizcarson) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/663178565911904256">November 8, 2015</a>
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<p class="embed-spacer"> This high-def video was captured in Los Angeles.</p>
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<iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yu7mNmqJJ10" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p class="embed-spacer">But that's not all.</p>
<p class="embed-spacer">The test missile was also clearly visible from parts of Arizona, nearly one thousand miles away from San Francisco.</p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5640b83ddd08954b4a8b45a1-902-517/arizona%20sighting%20of%20ufo.png" alt="Arizona Sighting of UFO" data-mce-source="Facebook"></p>
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Earthquakes in Arizona? Snowing in the desert?
Now UFO's?
End of the world confirmed ✔️ <a href="https://t.co/9AuWUUos2l">pic.twitter.com/9AuWUUos2l</a> </p>— Young Tisci (@ThatKiidDrew) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/663231900987752448">November 8, 2015</a>
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<p class="embed-spacer">Though an explanation has since been provided, conspiracy theorists are likely already working on their own version of the events. </p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-was-actually-test-missile-over-west-coast-2015-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/astronaut-chris-hadfield-aliens-2015-11">We asked an astronaut if aliens exist, and his answer was spot on</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/steven-hawkings-expensive-project-to-find-alien-life-2015-8Why Stephen Hawking's $100 million project to find alien life may be a huge waste of timehttp://www.businessinsider.com/steven-hawkings-expensive-project-to-find-alien-life-2015-8
Sat, 01 Aug 2015 12:22:10 -0400Andrew Norton
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/51dac80b6bb3f7cd7900000f-975-731/aliens-3.jpg" alt="Aliens " data-mce-source="Shutterstock/Albert Ziganshin" data-link="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-498883p1.html" /></p><p>The launch of the $100M <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/20/breakthrough-listen-massive-radio-wave-project-scan-far-regions-for-alien-life">Breakthrough Initiative</a> project to Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been supported by many leading scientists including Stephen Hawking and astronomer royal Martin Rees.</p>
<p>But there is no evidence &ndash; and few convincing theories &ndash; to suggest that intelligent, communicative aliens actually exist. So are listening projects really the best way to search for extraterrestrial life?</p>
<p>The possibility of life outside our own planet has been the subject of debate for centuries, with the essence of the problem crystallised by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950. His now famous &ldquo;<a href="http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/fermi-paradox">Fermi paradox</a>&rdquo; runs simply: if intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Galaxy, then why do we see no evidence for it?</p>
<h3><strong>Colonising The Galaxy &ndash; Hard But Possible</strong></h3>
<p>We now know that planets around other stars are very common. Since <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/How_many_planets_are_outside_our_Solar_System">the first discovery of a planet</a> orbiting the star 51 Pegasi in 1995, around <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/universe/sights/extrasolar_planets">2000 exoplanets have now been found</a>. Most of these are close by &ndash; within a few hundred light years.</p>
<p>Statistical <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/110/48/19273.abstract">analysis</a> of the results from the <a href="http://kepler.nasa.gov/">Kepler spacecraft</a> suggest that as many as one-fifth of all sun-like stars has an Earth-like planet in its <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-we-are-to-find-life-beyond-earth-we-need-to-be-explorers-not-hunters-45001">habitable zone</a>, where conditions are such that liquid water could exist.</p>
<p>So if planets are so plentiful, then what about life? The Drake equation, formulated by Frank Drake in 1961, <a href="http://theconversation.com/where-is-everybody-doing-the-maths-on-extraterrestrial-life-3390">attempts to answer this question</a> by suggesting there could be many civilisations in the Milky Way that we should be able to communicate with.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/51118fa1ecad04472f000017-1280-1000/heic1302a.jpg" alt="Spiral galaxy M 106" data-mce-source="NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler (for the Hubble Heritage Team). Acknowledgment: J. GaBany, A van der Hoeven" data-mce-caption="This image combines Hubble observations of M 106 with additional information captured by amateur astronomers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany. Gendler combined Hubble data with his own observations to produce this stunning colour image. M 106 is a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, a little over 20 million light-years away." data-link="http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1302a/" />However, while many of the terms in the equation are now known fairly well, others are highly uncertain. But let&rsquo;s assume for a moment that such civilisations do exist. If they do, then might we notice them? A straightforward way for an alien civilisation to make itself known is simply to colonise the galaxy. Let&rsquo;s consider how long this might take, assuming technology that is not too far away.</p>
<p>It <a href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-von-neumann-probe.htm">would be possible</a> now to build probes that could be sent out into space to search for other planets, land on them, and build replicas of the probe that could in turn be sent out to other planets and so on.</p>
<p>At the sort of speeds we can now imagine, such as that achieved by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-horizons-is-an-old-spacecraft-but-it-will-transform-our-knowledge-of-pluto-44524">New Horizons spacecraft</a> (60,000 km/h), it would take a mere 18,000 years to travel a distance of one light-year. Let&rsquo;s assume such a probe were sent to a planet ten light-years away, arriving after 180,000 years. It then builds ten copies of itself, and sends them off to other planets, each a further ten light years-away. In this way it would take only 5,000 probe generations to fill the entire galaxy &ndash; an accomplishment that would be achieved in less than a billion years.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50d3e565ecad046d02000001-2954-1972/aliens vs predator requiem.jpg" alt="aliens vs. predator requiem" data-mce-source="Fox " />But it&rsquo;s not hard to imagine that an advanced civilisation might produce space probes that could travel significantly faster than ours currently do, so colonising the galaxy in just a few hundred million years is not unlikely.</p>
<p>But here&rsquo;s the thing: the Milky Way has existed for around ten billion years, and we know that some planets exist around stars that are almost this old. So if intelligent life really is common, the likelihood is that it evolved elsewhere to our stage of intelligence several billion years ago, giving it plenty of time to colonise the galaxy. So where is everybody?</p>
<h3><strong>Are We All Alone &hellip;?</strong></h3>
<p>Entire books have been written exploring the various solutions to the Fermi paradox, but they fall into the following general categories.</p>
<p><strong>Rare Earth:</strong> It may be that there <a href="http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0711/0711.1751.pdf">are no civilisations</a> in the galaxy any more advanced than we are. Perhaps the combination of astronomical, geological, chemical and biological factors needed to allow the emergence of complex, multicellular life is just so unlikely that it&rsquo;s only happened once.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5579dbccecad04b73049d053-1024-870/operation_upshot-knothole_-_badger_001-1.jpg" alt="nuclear bomb" data-mce-source="Public domain" data-link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_explosion#/media/File:Operation_Upshot-Knothole_-_Badger_001.jpg" /><strong>Doomsday:</strong> Perhaps life and civilisations emerge often, but it is the nature of &ldquo;intelligent&rdquo; life to destroy itself within a few hundred years?. The human race <a href="http://www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html">certainly has no shortage of ways of accomplishing this</a>, whether it&rsquo;s via physical, chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction, or as a result of climate change, or even a nanotechnology catastrophe. If life doesn&rsquo;t persist very long on any planet, we shouldn&rsquo;t expect to see much evidence of it around the galaxy.</p>
<p><strong>Extinction:</strong> Even if we don&rsquo;t wipe ourselves out, perhaps the universe conspires to eliminate civilisations on a regular basis? It&rsquo;s clear on Earth that there have been <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/extinction_events">at least five mass extinctions</a>. Some of these may have been triggered by the impact of massive asteroids, but other possible extinction causing events might include nearby supernovae or gamma-ray bursts.</p>
<h3><strong>&hellip;Or Are The Aliens Just Hiding?</strong></h3>
<p>There is another class of possible solutions to the Fermi paradox that boil down to the fact that alien civilisations do exist, but we simply see no evidence of them.</p>
<p><strong>Distance scales:</strong> Perhaps civilisations are <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0019103581901354">spread too thinly</a> throughout the Galaxy to effectively communicate with each other? Civilisations may be separated in space, and also in time, so two civilisations just don&rsquo;t overlap during the time that they&rsquo;re each active.</p>
<p><strong>Technical problems:</strong> Maybe we&rsquo;re not looking in the right place, or in the right way? Or maybe we just haven&rsquo;t been looking for long enough? Perhaps we&rsquo;ve not recognised a signal that&rsquo;s out there, because the alien civilisation is using technology that we simply&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/01/recognizing-extraterrestrial-intelligence-there-could-be-life-and-intelligence-out-there-in-forms-we.html">cannot comprehend</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55bcef7c371d2223518bb640-956-663/screen shot 2015-08-01 at 12.08.14 pm.png" alt="UFO" data-mce-source="Wikimedia Commons" data-mce-caption="Alcamo Marina - Torre Alkamar in zona Battigia" data-link="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alcamo_Marina_-_Torre_Alkamar_in_zona_Battigia.jpg#/media/File:Alcamo_Marina_-_Torre_Alkamar_in_zona_Battigia.jpg" /><strong>Isolationist:</strong> Perhaps the aliens are out there, but they&rsquo;re <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0611283">choosing to hide</a> themselves from us? Perhaps everyone is listening, but nobody is transmitting? It may be that other civilisations know we&rsquo;re here, but the Earth is purposely isolated, as if we&rsquo;re some kind of exhibit in a zoo.</p>
<p>Finally, there are of course the more extreme possibilities such as that the Galaxy that we observe to be empty of life is a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/">simulation</a>, constructed by aliens. Or perhaps the aliens are already here <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119654/">among us</a>. Such speculation is great for science fiction, but without evidence, it&rsquo;s not worth pursuing further.</p>
<p>My own hunch is that life is indeed common in the galaxy, but intelligent life is rare &ndash; either because it doesn&rsquo;t evolve very often, or it doesn&rsquo;t last very long once it does. For that reason I think that SETI programmes are probably doomed to fail &ndash; although I would love to be proved wrong.</p>
<p>Instead I think the best chance of finding life elsewhere in the galaxy is through<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-seeing-the-universe-through-spectroscopic-eyes-37759">spectroscopy of the atmospheres</a> of transiting terrestrial planets. That will be carried out by missions such as such as the <a href="http://sci.esa.int/plato/46683-spacecraft-concepts-for-the-plato-mission/">European Space Agency&rsquo;s PLATO spacecraft</a>, due for launch in 2024. Such life may just be a green slime that we can scrape off a rock with our finger, but its detection would truly transform our view of the universe, and ourselves.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-golden-record-earth-sounds-soundcloud-2015-7" >NASA just posted a supertrack of Earth sounds it recorded for aliens in 1977</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/steven-hawkings-expensive-project-to-find-alien-life-2015-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-fat-aliens-2014-12">Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Why People Are Fat</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/7-things-that-drones-are-ruining-2015-77 things that drones are ruininghttp://www.businessinsider.com/7-things-that-drones-are-ruining-2015-7
Mon, 20 Jul 2015 15:04:47 -0400David Nye
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55ac3b465afbd369038b4567-800-540/up-up-and-away-nz-drone-makers-target-hollywood-2015-7.jpg" alt="An Aeronavics drone sits in a paddock near the town of Raglan, New Zealand, July 6, 2015. REUTERS/Naomi Tajitsu" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="An Aeronavics drone sits in a paddock near the town of Raglan, New Zealand"></p><p></p>
<p>Drones save lives on the battlefield and engineers are finding new uses for them everyday. But not all drone innovations are good things.</p>
<p>Here are seven things that drones are quickly ruining.</p>
<h3>1. Paintball</h3>
<p><div>
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vICfKPoCubw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">Paintball was once about grown children shooting each other with tiny blobs of paint. But drone operators are shoehorning themselves into the mock combat. Suddenly, paintball has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogue">pogues</a>. You can also see <a href="https://youtu.be/vICfKPoCubw?t=2m50s" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https://youtu.be/vICfKPoCubw?t=2m50s', 'drone-on-drone aerial paintball');">drone-on-drone aerial paintball</a> if you don’t like excitement.</p>
<h3>2. Firefighting</h3>
<p><div>
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/l-XD6Y3bCQY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">Firefighters keep <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/us/california-freeway-fire/" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/us/california-freeway-fire/', 'running into problems with drones');">running into problems with drones</a>. Hobbyists fly them close to wildfires to get video of the flames, blocking aircraft needed to fight the fire.</p>
<p class="embed-spacer">Helicopters and airplanes filled with fire retardant and water have to <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/drones-california-fire/" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/drones-california-fire/', 'wait on the ground');">wait on the ground</a> until the drones get out of the way.</p>
<h3>3. Fight clubs</h3>
<p><div>
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/aqq1LS6Cotw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">Fight clubs are supposed to be filled with angry people pummeling each other, not flying lights slowly colliding.</p>
<h3>4. Weddings</h3>
<p><div>
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ocqB6_y71xE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">Sure, flying a drone at the wedding gives a lot of shots that you couldn’t otherwise get. But, maybe focus on not injuring the bride instead of getting better angles.</p>
<h3>5. Security of military installations and The White House</h3>
<p><div>
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OYWlTYICqXw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">Military bases are always wary of being photographed or videotaped by people potentially planning an attack or trying to collect secrets. That makes <a href="http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150308/1019229179.html" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150308/1019229179.html', 'drones flying near a base');">drones flying near a base</a> a big problem. Even the White House has had issues with <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/18/politics/white-house-drone-charges/" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/18/politics/white-house-drone-charges/', 'drones flying over the fence');">drones flying over the fence</a>.</p>
<h3>6. Underground racing</h3>
<p><div>
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EywffcLK_a8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">Remember when underground racing was about fast cars and outrunning the police when they inevitably arrived? Well, drones have ruined that too. Now it’s basically mosquitoes flying around a parking garage.</p>
<h3>7. Flying saucer-spotting</h3>
<p><div>
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KXVtUCABiv8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">The idea of little green men spying on humans holds a draw for certain segments of the population, but modern “sightings” of potential alien craft are often drones which can <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/unmanned-drones-mistaken-for-ufos_n_4195736.html" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/unmanned-drones-mistaken-for-ufos_n_4195736.html', 'easily be made to look like flying saucers');">easily be made to look like flying saucers</a>.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-developing-a-spyware-carrying-drone-2015-7" >Boeing is creating a drone that can deliver spyware over WiFi</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/7-things-that-drones-are-ruining-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-uss-gerald-r-ford-aircraft-carrier-nimitz-2017-7">How the US's futuristic new aircraft carrier will change naval warfare forever</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/civilians-always-get-these-8-military-terms-wrong-2015-7Civilians always get these 8 military terms wronghttp://www.businessinsider.com/civilians-always-get-these-8-military-terms-wrong-2015-7
Fri, 17 Jul 2015 07:29:00 -0400David Nye
<p>We know it&rsquo;s hard to keep track of military lingo and technical terms, that&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;ve published so many guides (<a href="http://www.wearethemighty.com/us-air-force-airmen-terms-2015-02">Air Force</a>, <a href="http://www.wearethemighty.com/us-marine-corps-terms-phrases-2015-03">Marine Corps</a>, <a href="http://www.wearethemighty.com/18-military-soldiers-slang-army-term-2015-01">Army</a>, <a href="http://www.wearethemighty.com/19-terms-sailors-will-understand-2015-01">Navy</a>). But there are some terms that the media &mdash; especially Hollywood &mdash; just can&rsquo;t stop getting wrong when referring to the military.</p>
<h3>1. Bazooka</h3>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55a7d1942acae74c2f8b4ca0-952-714/we.jpg" alt="world war II bazooka soldier army signal corps rocket launcher" data-mce-source="US Army Signal Corps" /></p>
<p>Bazooka refers specifically to a <a href="http://www.britannica.com/technology/bazooka" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.britannica.com/technology/bazooka', 'series of anti-tank rocket launchers');">series of anti-tank rocket launchers</a> used from World War II through the Vietnam War. American troops today do not fire bazookas. There are modern rocket launchers that do the job the bazooka was once used for, but they have their own names, like the &ldquo;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3xsMqHu56g" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3xsMqHu56g', 'AT-4');">AT-4</a>&rdquo; and the &ldquo;<a href="https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/smaw.htm" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/smaw.htm', 'SMAW');">SMAW</a>.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>2. Missile/Rocket/bomb</h3>
<div id="attachment_11879" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://u5aq4437zm120nck735bj1c6.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/1024px-US_Navy_020723-N-9536A-007_AGM-119_Missile_Launch.jpg"></a>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/55a7d207371d22dc0b8b620e-960-720/we1.jpg" alt="helicopter navy rocket missile fire" data-mce-source="US Navy Photographer&rsquo;s Mate 2nd Class Lisa Aman" /></p>
<p>Bombs are explosive devices that are not propelled. They can be placed somewhere, they can be launched, or they can be dropped, but they are not propelled along their route. They may be guided. Rockets are like bombs, except they are propelled along their route without any type of guidance. The fins don&rsquo;t move and the projectile can&rsquo;t turn. Missiles are like rockets except they can turn, either under the instructions of an operator or according to an automated&nbsp;targeting system. One of the most common errors is referring to the Hellfire Missile as a Hellfire Bomb.</p>
<h3>3. Soldier</h3>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55a7d23f371d22462c8b4c6a-1024-681/we2.jpg" alt="army soldiers sun formation rank file us american" data-mce-source="US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/02/02/the-real-life-hurt-locker.html" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/02/02/the-real-life-hurt-locker.html', 'Marines are not soldiers');">Marines are not soldiers</a>, though they have been referred to as &ldquo;soldiers of the sea&rdquo; in past recruiting posters.&nbsp;In the U.S., people not in the Army are not&nbsp;soldiers, especially so for&nbsp;Marines &mdash; who will strongly protest being painted with that brush. &ldquo;Troops&rdquo; or &ldquo;service members&rdquo; are the umbrella terms that refer to all the members of the military.</p>
<h3>4. Humvee/Hummer</h3>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/55a7d274371d2210008b6f15-1024-671/we3.jpeg" alt="humvee hummer hmmwv fire machine gun night soldiers america troops fighting" data-mce-source="US Air Force Staff Sgt. Angela Stafford" /></p>
<p>The military doesn&rsquo;t have Hummers. They have High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles with the acronym HMMWV, commonly pronounced &ldquo;Humvee.&rdquo; Hummer is a civilian, luxury knockoff of the HMMWV. Anyone who has seen the inside of a HMMWV knows that it is not a &ldquo;luxury vehicle.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>5. Commander</h3>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54dcca875afbd3156e8b4569-800-591/top-us-commander-says-offering-options-on-afghan-drawdown.jpg" alt="U.S. General John Campbell, commander of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), salutes during the change of mission ceremony in Kabul, December 28, 2014. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="U.S. General John Campbell, commander of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), salutes during the change of mission ceremony in Kabul" /></p>
<p>Not everyone in charge of troops is a commander. For instance, the highest-ranking officer in each branch, the branch chief of staff, doesn&rsquo;t actually command anything and is not a &ldquo;commander.&rdquo; <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article27076711.html" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article27076711.html', 'Neither is their superior');">Neither is their superior</a>, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The only people who are &ldquo;commanders&rdquo; have the word &ldquo;command&rdquo; in either their rank or job title.</p>
<h3>6. UFO</h3>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55a7d2e2371d2223518b66ba-1024-680/we5.jpg" alt="we5" data-mce-source="US Navy Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Bryan Niegel" /></p>
<p>It&rsquo;s not strictly a military term, but much is made of Air Force reports of UFOs by conspiracy theorists and alien enthusiasts. Without getting into an argument about whether or not aliens are real, UFOs are just unidentified flying objects. The Air Force recording 12,618 of them from 1947 to 1969 does not mean that alien spacecraft have flown 12,618 or more sorties over American soil. It means that there have been 12,618 recorded sightings or sensor contacts of objects in the air. A balloon in an&nbsp;unexpected&nbsp;spot can be recorded as an&nbsp;unidentified flying object.</p>
<p>&ldquo;UFO&rdquo; and &ldquo;alien spaceship&rdquo; are not synonyms, even though <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.in/ufo-sightings-new-evidence-alien-spaceship-landing-near-us-airbase-surfaces-639381" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.ibtimes.co.in/ufo-sightings-new-evidence-alien-spaceship-landing-near-us-airbase-surfaces-639381', 'they&rsquo;re used that way');">they&rsquo;re used that way</a>.</p>
<h3>7. Collateral Damage</h3>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55959e265afbd3b0658b4567-800-533/syrian-islamist-insurgents-launch-battle-to-seize-government-held-aleppo-2015-7.jpg" alt="A man walks with the aid of a crutch past damaged buildings in the old city of Aleppo June 27, 2015. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="A man walks with the aid of a crutch past damaged buildings in the old city of Aleppo " /></p>
<p>Specifically, this is not shorthand for civilian deaths or a &ldquo;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/07/world/us-wields-defter-weapon-against-iraq-concrete-bomb.html" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/07/world/us-wields-defter-weapon-against-iraq-concrete-bomb.html', 'euphemism');">euphemism</a>.&rdquo; It is an official term that refers to damage done to any unintended target in any way during an attack. When American bombs were dropped on German trains that were later found to be carrying American prisoners of war, that&rsquo;s collateral damage to friendly elements. When missiles launched against a bomb maker&rsquo;s home also damage a nearby mosque, that&rsquo;s collateral damage.</p>
<p>Of course the most tragic instances of collateral damage are when people, including civilians, are accidentally killed. But those aren&rsquo;t the only instances of collateral damage.</p>
<h3>8. Gun</h3>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53c6a0b06da81105158d728c-3500-2333/rtxy5kl.jpg" alt="israeli navy" data-mce-source="Amir Cohen/Reuters" data-mce-caption="A sailor in the Israeli navy stands aboard a patrol boat in the Mediterranean sea" /></p>
<p>Machine guns and sidearms are guns. Most soldiers and Marines are carrying rifles. While it would be nice if the news media would use the more exact term &ldquo;rifle&rdquo; when referring to rifles, they can get a pass because the <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gun" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gun', 'civilian definition of gun');">civilian definition of gun</a>&nbsp;does include rifles. Entertainment media needs to learn this lesson though, since troops in movies and T.V. would&nbsp;never call their &ldquo;rifle&rdquo; a &ldquo;gun.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s drilled into service members with the same ferocity as the meaning of &ldquo;attention&rdquo; or the proper way to salute.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/civilians-always-get-these-8-military-terms-wrong-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/21st-century-airplane-innovation-military-2015-6">11 game-changing military planes from the last 15 years</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-is-it-a-ufo-sun-halo-sparks-fear-and-jokes-in-mexico-2015-5A strange sun phenomenon caused panic in Mexicohttp://www.businessinsider.com/afp-is-it-a-ufo-sun-halo-sparks-fear-and-jokes-in-mexico-2015-5
Fri, 22 May 2015 05:05:58 -0400
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/555e5c865afbd32b3a8b4567-800/afp-is-it-a-ufo-sun-halo-sparks-fear-and-jokes-in-mexico.jpg" border="0" alt="A halo around the sun is seen in the sky above Mexico City on May 21, 2015"></p><p>Mexico City (AFP) - Was it a UFO? A sign that the end is nigh?</p>
<p>A rainbow-like halo surrounded the sun over Mexico City on Thursday, an optical phenomenon that triggered a social media frenzy of pictures and jokes about the end of the world.</p>
<p>Some weren't so amused.</p>
<p>"I have received some 30 phone calls from people who are scared and think that it's a bad omen, others think it means it will rain more than expected," the coordinator of the National Weather Service, Juan Manuel Caballero, told AFP.</p>
<p>"I've had to repeat several times: 'No, it doesn't hurt if you don't look at it directly," Caballero sighed.</p>
<p>But his science-based reassurances had no effect on many Chilangos -- as the capital's residents are known -- who had a field day on social media.</p>
<p>"The aliens have finally arrived! Prepare the sandwiches for the trip!" someone wrote on Facebook.</p>
<p>Others quipped that it was a government conspiracy to blind voters ahead of June 7 mid-term polls, with one Twitter user saying: "A sun halo days before elections. Coincidence? I don't believe it."</p>
<p>Scientists have a better explanation: Sun halos happen when sunlight passes through ice crystals, bending the light and creating the colorful ring.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"It's very common. The thing is that people never look up," Caballero said.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-is-it-a-ufo-sun-halo-sparks-fear-and-jokes-in-mexico-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/container-ships-collide-suez-canal-egypt-2015-3">Watch these giant container ships collide near the Suez Canal</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/using-information-theory-to-detect-alien-life-2015-4Here's how humans are going to find alien life http://www.businessinsider.com/using-information-theory-to-detect-alien-life-2015-4
Sun, 03 May 2015 15:00:00 -0400Jessica Orwig
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/552ee19869bedd2172640e63-800-686/titan-8.jpg" border="0" alt="titan"></p><p>There's <a href="http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog">more than two dozen exoplanets</a> in our galaxy that have the potential to harbor life, not to mention the numerous other habitable worlds that could exist in the 100 billion other galaxies throughout the universe.</p>
<p>Considering the numbers, the chances for life existing beyond Earth look good, but the chances of detecting that life are less certain.</p>
<p>Why? For one thing, we simply don't know what that alien life will look like.</p>
<p>"It could be so utterly different that it could be staring us in the face and we would not be able to understand that it is life," Christoph Adami, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Michigan State University, told Business Insider.</p>
<h2>Beyond carbon-based life</h2>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5373e3f6eab8ea655152974e-1200-800/shutterstock_174962708.jpg" border="0" alt="babysitter nanny with kid and puppy">All life on Earth is carbon-based, meaning the molecules that make up every living organism known to man contain carbon atoms bonded with other atoms. Life on Earth revolves around oxygen, though: Plants take carbon dioxide in (that's one carbon with two oxygen atoms) and give off oxygen, which humans breathe and need to live.</p>
<p>But other lifeforms could be based on something else entirely. One good example is the simple organic compound methane — which has one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms.</p>
<p>Take Saturn's moon Titan, for example. The moon is rich with lakes of liquid methane on the surface, and has low oxygen — humans couldn't survive there. But, these lakes could harbor <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/space/template-methane-based-life-forms-titan">methane-based life forms</a> that are vastly different from the life we have here on Earth.</p>
<p>The problem: Our instruments for detecting life are only designed to test for life like ours, however, we may never know if life on Titan, or other life with different chemistry on other worlds, exists.</p>
<p>Adami is working on a way around this problem. He presented his approach at the <a href="http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR15/Session/E12">2015 American Physical Society's April meeting</a> in Baltimore, MD.</p>
<p>In the early 90s, he helped develop a highly sophisticated computer program called <a href="http://devolab.msu.edu/software/">Avida</a>. The program studies how digital organisms — computer programs with the ability to self-replicate and mutate without human intervention — evolve over time. Scientists use programs like these to better understand the traits that drive Darwinian evolution. Their artificial self-replication process makes them a great analog for real life on Earth.</p>
<p>Adami has bigger plans for Avida, however.</p>
<h2>Life's universal theme</h2>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/552fc6d9eab8ea8869e8a4d5-1200-924/20562069_7cf1e2aaec_o.jpg" border="0" alt="matrix code"></p>
<p>He's looking for a trait that all life forms across the universe would possess — a universal theme of sorts that would go beyond the chemicals they're made of.</p>
<p>If this universal theme exists and we knew how to identify and test for it, we could quickly identify life on other moons or planets, even if that life has a completely different chemistry compared to life on Earth.</p>
<p>Adami thinks he's pretty close to finding this theme.</p>
<p>"There are in fact things that are universal to all forms of life, everywhere, and what that is, is information," Adami said. "Basically information is that which allows you to make predictions. And all living systems have to do that."</p>
<p>This information is stored inside of every organism's genome — the complete set of their genes. A good way to picture this information is to think of it as individual pieces, or bits, like the bits that computers use to communicate.</p>
<p>A single strand of human DNA, for example, likely contains hundreds of millions of these information "bits," says Adami. And the way organisms evolve, he says, depends on how these so-called bits replicate and mutate over time.</p>
<p>In a lecture, famed astrophysicist <a href="http://www.hawking.org.uk/life-in-the-universe.html">Stephen Hawking talks about</a> how the information in our DNA has "probably changed by only a few million bits" over the last several million years as we evolved from apes.</p>
<p>Of course, Hawking is an astrophysicist and not an evolutionary biologist, so this theory should be taken with a grain of salt. But he's not the only one to suggest the <a href="http://www.evolutionnews.org/2014/01/when_biology_tr081551.html">evolution is driven by changes</a> in our genome's information bits.</p>
<h2>The big question</h2>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/552ee337ecad046a358d73d7-1200-924/curiosity-23.jpg" border="0" alt="curiosity">The big question is how to distinguish between the information stored in molecules in living organisms and the ones stored in non-living objects.</p>
<p>One way of doing this is by looking for patterns, says Adami.</p>
<p>Unlike living things, which generate specific patterns as they self-replicate and reproduce (like how sequences in our <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15921050">DNA repeat themselves</a>), things that are not living will have only random bits of information that never repeat at regular frequencies.</p>
<p>So the task is this: Find the repeated sequences.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that's easier said than done.</p>
<p>The best way to do it, he says, is to take a look at the chemicals inside the soils of other moons and planets in our solar system. No one has begun doing this yet. There are no instruments on board NASA's Mars rovers that use Adami's method and we have no working rovers on other planets or moons at this time.</p>
<h2>A fourth domain of life?</h2>
<h2><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/538deafc69beddc423859eee-1200-924/kepler22b-artwork.jpg" border="0" alt="Kepler22b artwork"></h2>
<p>&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Although discovering alien life within the soils of other worlds might be far off, scientists on Earth are aiming to hunt down life forms never-before discovered. Their approach is one of the most promising experiments that could ultimately help us find extraterrestrials</span></p>
<p>In November, 2014, a team of researchers at the <a href="http://jgi.doe.gov/discovering-undiscovered-tools-microbial-tree-of-life/">Joint Genome Institute</a> proposed an experiment that would search for a fourth domain of life here on Earth.</p>
<p>Right now there are only three known domains of life. The three domains are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-domain_system">archaea, bacteria, and eukaryote</a> where each domain has a specific sequence in their RNA gene structure that distinguishes them from the other two groups.</p>
<p>But the team at JGT suspects that there might be a fourth domain with an RNA sequence completely unlike anything seen before.</p>
<p>"We are poised, armed with a new toolkit of powerful genomic technologies to generate and mine the increasingly large data sets to discover new life that may be strikingly different from those that we cataloged thus far," said JGI director <a href="http://jgi.doe.gov/about-us/organization/strategic-management/eddy-rubin/" target="_blank" title="Eddy Rubin">Eddy Rubin</a> in a <a href="http://jgi.doe.gov/discovering-undiscovered-tools-microbial-tree-of-life/">statement</a>.</p>
<p>To do this, the team wants to take a look the genes of cells in tiny life forms that lived more than 2.3 billion years ago, at a time when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event">Earth's atmosphere had far less oxygen than it does today</a>. The low-oxygen conditions at that time might have spurred a genetically-unique life form that could even resemble life forms on other worlds that have little oxygen in their atmosphere, like Mars. This coveted new life form is biology's version of "<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20265-biologys-dark-matter-hints-at-fourth-domain-of-life.html">dark matter</a>".</p>
<p>Whether it's on Earth or another world, there's certain to be exciting new advances in the search for new life.</p><p><strong>LEARN MORE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/should-we-actively-try-to-contact-aliens-2015-3" >Serious talk about contacting aliens is sparking a fiery debate in the scientific community</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/are-there-aliens-in-our-solar-system-2015-3" >NASA scientist says this is where we'll likely find alien life first </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/using-information-theory-to-detect-alien-life-2015-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-allen-microsoft-discovers-battleship-japan-world-war-2015-3">Here's what Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen actually found at the bottom of the ocean in the Philippines</a></p>